Venus with Apple

Highly regarded in his lifetime, Severo Calzetta was the son of a sculptor. Born in Ravenna, Italy, he spent the years 1500–1509 in Padua. When he returned to Ravenna he established a large, successful workshop. This elegant "Venus with Apple" is notable for its beauty and for the details that reveal it to be a work by Severo—delicate, almond-shaped eyes; carefully modeled, incised hands and drapery depicted with realistic “crinkly” folds rather than the decorative linear folds more common among Severo’s peers.